Youth Awareness Environment Forum (YAEF)

YAEF centres around a programme of paid membership by people (ages 18-55 years) who are interested in serving Nepalese society with environmental enthusiasm; as of this writing, there are 375 members from 55 districts. These members use a variety of communication tools for education and development around environmental issues. YAEF organises free distribution of nursery plants, conducts tree plantation and conservation, builds public toilets and distributes hand pumps and well tools, offers medical camps, creates environmental literacy programmes, carries out door-to-door campaigns to share information about environment in the Katmandu valley, distributes cotton masks as protection from air and dust pollution, advises the government about the environment (e.g., carries out advocacy to fight the use of plastic), organises seminars and workshops, honours elderly citizens, and provides scholarships to 101 diligent students per year who are living in poverty.

A key strategy for raising awareness is publication of a monthly magazine which focuses exclusively on environmental concerns. Published in Nepalese, with some English features, the magazine is distributed free of charge to rural dwellers (organisations and institutions pay a fee to support the publication). YAEF uses this medium to raise a voice against activities that harm the environment, such as pollution caused by the adulteration of fuel, deforestation, stone mines, brick industries who fail to deal with pollution, and so on.

YAEF also uses the printed medium to share information, as evidenced by its non-profit, 4-room community environmental library. The goal is to preserve history and raise awareness by sharing books (free of charge), thereby exposing people to topics such as biodiversity, wild animals, air pollution, sanitation, health, and national art and culture. Established on World Environment Day (WED) in June 1998, the library - which has approximately 9,000 books as of this writing - also includes various bulletins from different national and international forums and organisations. In order to reach schoolchildren, YAEF's library organises programmes related to ecology and the environment. Ultimately, YAEF would like to transform the library into a research centre by expanding its space and equipment.

Community involvement and participation are key components of YAEF's work. Each year, YAEF celebrates WED on June 5th by organising a large festival in the valley, at which representatives of local and national newspapers are often present. A key purpose of the bicycle rally that is associated with the festival each year is to raise social awareness while encouraging citizens to make a promise to apply the slogan of this Day in their everyday lives throughout the year. After making a procession through the city, YAEF provides all participants with tee-shirts, caps, and cotton masks. In addition, a cultural programme was held in city hall; various dance performances, educational dramas, and songs were performed to focus citizens' attention on the environment while entertaining them. The programme concludes in YAEF's office. In 2006, YAEF organised a secondary-level speech competition programme which engaged students from 35 schools in the valley around the topic of "Conservation of Earth". A banner show presented banners created to communicate various WED slogans; YAEF also distributed posters and pamphlets in Katmandu Valley.

YAEF also uses community media forums to share environmental information. Specifically, YAEF has its own transmission station with its own frequency (FM 104.2MHz). Broadcasting 18 hours per day, Environment Cycle Radio F.M.104.2 MHz transmits news, but emphasises educational and informational programmes on environment and health. YAEF is also in the process of producing a 100-episode teleserial called "Ahwan" with the goal of educating people about the environment.

Environment.